Step 8: Pond updates

Step 9: Get published in a gardening magazine! :]

The editor of UK's excellent Garden Answers* magazine noticed this Instructable and liked the idea so much she wanted to include it in the June 2013 i...

There are many Instructables (and other Web pages) on using tires (tyres, but I'll use the other spelling) for gardens, which I have been very motivated by, but here is how I used two tractor front tires to build a fish pond. The original inhabitants were our two surviving bronze goldfish, who after years inside, finally bred in the pond and had three babies. This pond was built in December 2007 in the earlier days of my turn-the-front-lawn-into-garden project. The tires came from a park mowing tractor so are wider than normal tractor tires, giving extra height to the pond. You can usually pick these up free, in New Zealand anyway, from large tire repair and supply workshops: mine came from the parks maintenance company I work for - free disposal for them and free supply for me!

Well done! a good use of recycled materials, I have also built a couple of ponds/fountains (one from a stock trough, but also a recycley type from an old spa I bought on TradeMe) .. here if you are interested.........

the spa was a massive $35 on trademe, and the grid on top a piece of scrap reinforcing wire grid (I got enough for 5 ponds for $20 (trademe again)) the pump has a UV filter light to keep the pond clear and the fish happy

Fabulous recycling idea Finton! Beautifully executed construction of your tyre pond & fantastic instructable - very well written & great pictures. Well done! Thank you for sharing your inspirational idea with others. I'm planning on moving from the sunny Queensland coast to country Tasmania (Australia) next year in my quest for a simpler, more sustainable lifestyle. I can visualise a pond just like this set up on my property to feed my organic veggies. Very much looking forward to giving your idea a go! :-)

Well, thanks! *blush,blush*. Really envy you your upcoming "simpler, more sustainable lifestyle": I'm gonna have to do the same! If you can set your tyre pond higher than your veges, you wouldn't even need a pump to water the garden. Please post some pics when you've created your new pond - however long it is until it's built.

Just keep in mind that you'll need a little reservoir of water for the fish to survive in if you forget to turn off the drainage tap or you get a leak in the plumbing. You could achieve this by digging a hole in the centre of the bottom tyre (instead of filling it with sand as I did), and draping the liner over this. The drainage could then take water out as far down as the bottom of the tyre. Or conversely, make sure you outlet pipe is high enough to leave enough water in the bottom of the pond.

I so want one of these, but I have no backyard to make one in and my sister won't let me make one in her backyard. Guess I'll just have to envy everyones elses :) Very nice tutorial though. I'll keep it for furture refence :)

Aquaponics! Build a grow bed to cover half the pond, and lead the pump into it, and just let it drain back into pond. It could also provide shade in summer. That's how my pond is set up, only I have multiple grow beds around it and vertically, and my pond being an old swimming pool.

Nice idea about the summer shade from the aquaponics bed, Sam. I have a fibreglass bath which could be used for just that system. Could you post some pics of your setup as a reply, please?: we'd love to see your setup.

A great pond system and a great instructable to boot. Five stars, three cheers, two thumbs up and a round of drinks. I would love to try this, but I do not think I could do that here in Arizona though because of the triple digit temps here and all the black materials used. The water would quickly heat up and it would probably be too hot for the fishies. Maybe I could build a small roof over my tire pond and grow my veggies on the roof?

Can one vacuum the fish poop out of the pond with a wet/dry shop vac instead of emptying it to clean it?

I know that this is a very late reply but I have only begun to play... Take a look into aquaponics. There are many of the techniques that would work for it. I am doing it on a small scale in Colorado Springs Colorado. I have used wading pools as well as a preformed pond. Once they are up and running they are almost without effort except making certain things get picked and eaten.

Thanks rhino. As for it being too hot in AZ, you could paint the tyres white (see pic), surround them with something (see pic and my step 8), bury them (see pic), or place the pond in shade (eg the north side of your house, or grow somthing on the south side of the pond [see my young banana palms and sugarcane in step 1). Your roof suggestion is a great idea, especially if you make it part of a aquaponics system (plenty of ideas on the Web). You probably could vacuum out the poop using a wet/dry vac, but they only hold a relatively small amount of liquid. You needn't empty the pond anyway - just siphon out some water while making the pipe reach the pond bottom. Aquaponics would take care of this for you.

I wonder if this could be adapted to make a waterfall for my basement pond/aquaponic system? (If I line them with food grade pvc it should still qualify as organic practices I think.) It is making my brain spin in happy directions!!

I'm sure it could 1makerofstuff. I'm not sure exactly what you have in mind, but one possibility would be to step tyres above each other and make one of those cascade things, sort of like the attached picture.

My brain is spinning with the ideas of what can be done with the tires. I was thinking that combining the tire "wreath" with a pump could make a great spitter to make a splash into a pond. My garden junk is starting to take over.

Living in a colder climate (Michigan) We make sure our ponds are deep enough for the fish to survive the winter. I believe it is supposed to be deeper than 18 inches. I think two tires below ground should do the trick, a third to be more certain. A retaining wall of earth (from the hole) forming a raised bed round the bottom might also be a good addition. My mother kind heartedly allowed the neighbor to bury about 80 -100 tires out back half out of the ground as a "landscape fence" in the back yard to foil the local blight inspector. Its legit but ugly and now that I'm living here I'll have enough of these ponds eventually to consider fish farming LOL. I am going to see if I might be able to connect them under ground via a 4 inch pvc pipe if I can rig up a gasket gizmo that wont leak.Great way to recycle! Great instructible! Keep up the good work : )

Aye, fortunately it doesn't get that cold in Auckland, NZ, even if it is too cold for macmundi's guppies (still: no reason why the pool couldn't be heated). I was thinking of drilling a hole through the bottom tyre and through the plastic liner, then using tank fittings to attach a drain pipe, or in your case a connecting manifold. Having it come up from underneath would only be safe if you drilled through the bottom sidewall and liner, otherwise the liner wouldn't be rigid enough to handle any pipe movement. Thanks for the compliments. Sttach some pics when you've built your pond(s), yeah?

This is an excellent idea mate!! Let alone not having to pay the throw-away charge for our old tires. To prevent algae growth, I thought of putting a few guppies in it. If the algae grows too fast, put in more!! These fish can live solely on algae and leaves fertilizers for your lilies.

Well, it's a year late, but here's my reply! Guppies are a good idea: in Auckland it gets too cold, best as I know, - they're a "tropical" fish here. Where are you macmundi? However it's a good idea, and I'm sure we could get something to cope here.

Ive seen a design identical to yours,but with crayfish & blue gills & included soil retainer wall-but with heavy duty shade cloth, & nitrogen loving grape, Roma, & cherry tomato mix, cascaded down the face of the plastic mesh.( They used orange, construction-site barricading material left over from a project!) Vines were tethered to mesh & encouraged to fill in the voids. Plus they thought ahead & ran a 1/2" for water return & oxygen bubbler stone,through the bottom, before partially burying the 3 tier-tire design. A constant drip flow feed to neighboring basil plants (oriented in the ground on north & west sides) which grew quite nicely & complimentary to tomatoes! I believe a simple toilet float valve switch always kept it topped off with fresh H20. I'm thinking strawberries/catfish would be a nice substitution for my little experiment! :-)

Thanks teslawasRIGHT . Yeah, typical. And I thought I was the first (well, I might have been: when did you see the other one?). Another case of sychronicity / morphic resonance perhaps (eg motorised aeroplanes*, telephones, etc)? ;] At least I was first on to Instructibles with it, so I get the kudos! (eg as with the patent holders of motorised aeroplanes, telephones, ...). I had thought about fitting a water return etc, but at the time was more interested in getting the thing built while I had the enthusiasm. After it proved to work, I've subsequently thought about retrofitting all that to the pond but haven't had the inclination as the current system works OK. I would like to try an aquaculture system though... * first invented in New Zealand by Richard Pearse. First patented by the Wright Bros.

Since Dec 07 (see Step 6). They lasted well without filtration and pump as I emptied the pond regularly to water the garden (Steps 6 and 8). I got a bit slack last winter - the garden didn't need watering - and the pond got too scummy for the big mother goldfish: she died. The two remaining fish (her babies) are doing fine. I now use a pump to empty the pond (Step 8), but that's not really necessary: I have emptied the pond using a 3m length of hose to syphon the water out - make sure the fish aren't left to suffocate when the pond is empty!